“Dr. Rachmat’s works at the current edge of public relations work and its application in what is arguably one of the first insights into the dynamics of public relations & crisis management in Indonesia. Using his own fieldwork studies, the author provides a rich account of the dynamics of a major and still unresolved crisis in Indonesia, in an era where information. He provides a compelling picture of the complexities, tensions and trade-offs involved between the powerful and the powerless and the role, ethical and otherwise, that public relations plays in this heart-breaking real-life examples.”

“Dr Kriyantono’s work is a major contribution to the study of Public Relations. In particular it offers, for students and practitioners alike, for example, an insight into an understanding of the important issue of crisis management within this field of Public Relations.”

“Rachmat has completed a detailed examination of a complex natural disaster. He examines how theories of public relations issues and crisis management, corporate social responsibility and risk management collide with community expectations and cultural social realities. The author raises questions of the influence of power and he discusses how perceptions and the seeming realities can change as different disciplines are brought to bear on the same evidence and as social attitudes and cultural understandings are put under extreme pressure. This book is important in its study of the impact of resource development and subsequent disaster in a closely settled region where traditional values are paramount”

Associate Professor Kevin Smith (Lecturer of Public Relations, School of Communication, ECU, Australia)

“Critical ethnography is not often used in public relations scholarship so this approach is a welcome addition to the field.… The approaches and methods used in this study are appropriate for responding to the research question and offer fresh perspectives in understanding the processes and challenges of crisis communication in international, specifically Asian, contexts.“

Marianne D. Sison, Ph.D, FPRIA

(Deputy Dean, International School of Media and Communication, RMIT Merlbourne-Australia)

In summary, this book significantly adds of the discipline of Communication, particularly the application of critical ethnography in the field area of Public relations and crisis management. The research in this book will also become a potential example for research in the field area studied, since I acknowledge that this methodological approach is rarely attempted by the Communication scholars and researchers in Indonesia.

Rachma Ida, M.Comms, Ph.D

Head of Communication Postgraduate Program, Airlangga University

Master of Communications Edith Cowan University Western Australia

Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Curtin University Western Australia